A web-based

Human Resource Information System for

the small – medium business
Final Year Undergraduate Computing Project

Programme: BSc Business Information Systems Year: 2008

Semester
A
:

072467
Name: Inga Narmontaite Number:
3
 Contents
1. Abstract...........................................................................................................................4
2. Introduction......................................................................................................................5
3. Identify and investigate the Human Resource Information System................................6
3.1. What is HR, HR management?................................................................................6

3.2. How HRIS appeared, developed?............................................................................7

3.3. What kind of HRIS exits today?................................................................................8

3.4. Future of the HRIS..................................................................................................10

4. Human Resource Information system of the UEL........................................................11

5. Conclusion - determine the need for a web-based database system...........................12
6. Tools for the web-based database development..........................................................13
7. Conclusion - tools for the web-based database development......................................14
8. References....................................................................................................................15
9. Glossary........................................................................................................................16
10. Appendix 1 – Table 1....................................................................................................17
11. Appendix 2 – Table 2....................................................................................................18
12. Appendix 3 – Figure 1...................................................................................................19
13. Appendix 4 – Figure 2...................................................................................................20
14. Appendix A – Project Proposal Form............................................................................21
15. Appendix B – Project Plan – Literature review.............................................................22
16. Appendix C – Project Plan – Practical Part...................................................................23
17. Appendix D – Gantt chart of Literature review..............................................................24
18. Appendix E – Gantt chart of Practical Part...................................................................25
19. Appendix F – E-mail from HR expert............................................................................26
20. Appendix G – E-mail from UEL HR Systems Manager................................................27

Page 2 of 32
 1. Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the Human Recourse Information Systems and to develop a web-
based database using the Open Source software.

Methodology / approach: Meet the project proposal aim and objectives. The literature
review was conducted. First, an expert in the HR management field was contacted (see
Appendix F) for literature recommendation. Recommended literature: books, e-journals
were reviewed. Also overview of the UEL HR system was conducted, communicated with
the UEL HR Systems Manager (see Appendix G). Read documentation of the UEL HR
system. Reviewed the UEL HR department’s strategy plans. Used different research
processes, as without reviewing literature couldn’t write report and at the same time had to
return and review some of literature sources.

Ethical issues: Had to be aware and consider related issues: copyright, the Data
Protection Act. All the time reference used ideas or text.

Findings: I attempted to overview the Human Resource Information Systems (see

Appendix B & D) and prove that the medium – small business can use it too, as the Open
Source software can offer a high quality and low price alternative to expensive providers’
solutions.

Research limitations: Time and scope of report.

Practical implications: I decided to use the Open Source software for developing a web-
based database (see Appendix C & E), as it will benefit for the small-medium business and
their employees.

Originality / value: as my literature research and review showed, it is expensive and not
affordable for the most small – medium businesses to use electronic HR system.
Innovations of the IS and technology gives opportunity to change it. I intend to create a
web-based database that will give more opportunities for the employee from the small –
medium business. I will use open source software to reduce the cost of the system.

Page 3 of 32
 2. Introduction

“A melt down of all traditional boundaries. In the BLUR world, products and services
are merging. Buyers sell and sellers buy. Neat value chains are messy economics webs.
Homes are offices. No longer is there a clear line between structure and process, owning
and using, knowing and learning, real and virtual. Less and less separates employee and
employer.” Davis & Meyer (1999, p. 7)
Technology innovations are changing our life, the way of communication, and even
all businesses. For example, today online banking is a daily routine. So what about the use
of the IS innovation in the workplace? Does it give more freedom for an employee? Does it
matter that you work for a big or small company? Would you fancy accessing your payslip
online? Or to change your personal details yourself? Or maybe stay at home at rainy day
and attend your work training online?

Page 4 of 32
 3. Identify and investigate the Human Resource Information System

We are surrounded by IS and all kind of technologies. Most of us can’t imagine life
without all that. We chart, do shopping, checking news or banking online. So if
technologies take important part in our personal life, what about organizations? An
organization has to be innovation if it wants to be successful and profitable. Organizations
use more and more IS for human resources action (Gueutal & Stone, 2005).
3.1. What is HR, HR management?

Most of us are rushing to work every morning. We work in a different kind of

organizations. Any organization without employees couldn’t exist. So people are the
foundation of the organizations. Employees can be called human labour or resources
(HR). William R. Tracey describes human resources more scientifically: “The people that
staff and operate an organization … The organizational function that deals with the
people ...” (Heathfield, no date).
An organization’s or let say business’s main objective is to be profitable. To achieve
success in this, human resources (employees) have to perform well. Efficient
performances of employees’ depend on the right skills, knowledge and motivation. In the
organization should be a management form that deals with issues like: hiring, employee
motivation, training, communication, administration, benefits, sacking, benefits, and safety,
and so on – everything related to employee’s well performance. Human resource
management (HRM) is the management of the employment relationship (Beardwell &
Claydon, 2007).

Page 5 of 32
 3.2. How HRIS appeared, developed?

Human resources function in the business emerged in the 18 th – 19th centuries. It

was related to the increasing number of different types of employees’ commitment in the
organization (Bratton & Gold, 2003). In the beginning it took just an administrative role in
the business.
Till the 1960s HR system was manual and HR department performed clerical role in
the organization. It was just “drawers full of hanging files arranged in alphabetical order,
the dust they collected only being distributed by the Personnel Manager or an
Administrative Assistant when an employee did something like change an address”
(Hopkins & Markham, 2003, p.5).
The necessity to process large amounts of data, such as employee payslips or
training records, did the first step towards the HR technology in the 1960s – 1970s. Large
mainframes solved payroll calculation and payslips processing problems in the
organization HR department (Boroughs et al, 2008, p.25). At that time HR systems were
developed inside the organization with a help of IT team. Also there were small HR system
vendors, like Peterborough Software, Midland, Dun and Bradstreet and Cyborg (Boroughs
et al, 2008, p.24).
HRIS boomed in the 1980s, regarding the capability of desktop PCs and
networking. Now HR department could keep records in the digital form.
A client – server architecture changed human resource functionality dramatically.
Ability to share, store, distribute and present data in different forms, helped to evolve HR
market. But still new HRIS projects were expensive and caused lots of problems.
The need for one system emerged, as HRIS and other business systems became
more complex. In the 1990s the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system appeared.
Applications developed by Oracle, SAP and PeopleSoft. As Hopkins & Markham (2003, p.
6) state “it seemed like a revolution at the time, did not really change things greatly. There
were no hanging files to collect dust, but the records still did not do much.” HRIS still was
static database, carrying out more administrative tasks than strategic, not profitable for the
business.
Nowadays are more and more talking about eHR or B2E (Business to employee)
(Hopkins & Markham, 2003, p.7). The eHR is a web-based human resources information
system.

Page 6 of 32
 3.3. What kind of HRIS exits today?

Philosophy of the HR functions is changing thanks to innovations of IT technologies.

HR systems can handle most of the manual administration functions. Figure 1 (see
Appendix 3) shows new HR technologies.
Companies are adapting web-based technologies. It is attractive of short
implementation time, pretty to look – visual functionality and easy logic of the HTML,
Visual Basic and SQL (Walker & Perrin, 2001).
Gueutal & Stone (2005) point out new trends in electronic HR:
 HR portals - a single site (a simple-static or a complex) that supports all kind
of HR information. As Walker & Perrin (2001) notice HR portals collect
information from outside and inside the organisation.
 Employee Self – Service (ESS) or Managerial Self – Service (MSS):
applications help to view or change records, benefits, set plans, check
performance (Ngai et al, 2008). These applications eliminate HR staff.
 Strategic Applications (SA) - “examples of strategic applications include
online application systems that are part of virtually all company websites.
These applications often include marketing material designed to reinforce the
HR brand and attract qualified applicants” (Gueutal & Stone, 2005, p. 202).
 Knowledge Bases (KB) capture, store, maintain and share knowledge. For
example, “employee submits a question to the system, the answer comes
from the knowledge base” (Gueutal & Stone, 2005, p. 203). Knowledge
management gives a competitive advantage to the business.
Table 1 (see Appendix 1) shows the most popular HRIS vendors and HRIS
software information.
Choosing HRIS software should be considered positive benefits and challengers. A
number of eHR benefits (Hopkins & Markham, 2003, pp. 11-21), (Bogardus, 2007, p.46),
(Jones, 1998, p.4) and (Reilly & Williams, 2006, pp. 117-118):
 Reduce paper use
 Better data management
 Empowering employees
 Cost saving for the HR and an organization
 Eliminates redundant HR data and tasks
 Fully informed employees about HR issues and events
Page 7 of 32
 Some of the negatives and challengers (Hopkins & Markham, 2003, pp. 21-27):
 Cost of the HRIS
 Information security
 Equal opportunities to access data (ability to access data, access for disable
people)
 Loosing person to person communication
 HR staff redundancy
“The greatest barrier to the implementation of HRIS is insufficient financial
support ... empirical study demonstrates the concrete benefits of using HRIS, many
companies face a lack of money to design and develop HRIS (Beckers and Bsat, 2002;
Patterson, 2002). One of the possible explanations for this is the high cost of HRIS” (Ngai
& Wat, 2006, p.311).

Page 8 of 32
 3.4. Future of the HRIS

Internet is changing view to the electronic human resource management. Anyone

can obtain information very quickly and easy with a click of the keyboard’s button.
Businesses are concentrating on the individuals, more often considering welfare of the
employees.
Rutledge (2005, p. 14) brings out that employee who is involved and engaged in the
business will be: attracted to his work ("I want to do this"), devoted to his work ("I am
dedicated to the success of what I am doing"), and excited about his work ("I love what I
am doing"). Unfortunately, just 29% of employees are actively involved in their jobs
(BlessingWhite, April 2008). Involving employee in the electronic human resource
management will provide “many areas of payback for progressive organization” (Workforce
Management, 2006). An organization HR portal should be single, easy to use, including
personalized, self-service functions for the employee. Also this portal should be accessible
anywhere at any time. Future trend: a web-based HR portal. Figure 2 (see Appendix 4)
shows increasing number of Internet access in Great Britain. The National Statistics
survey (August 2008) shows that “16 million households in Great Britain (65 per cent) had
Internet access in 2008”.
As stated in the literature and considering my own experience, I can conclude that
information technology impact on the human resource management is increasing and will
continue to increase. “The successful implementation of a virtual HR department will
clearly increase a company’s competitive advantage” and “virtual HR departments will
become the norm in the near future” (Jones, 1998, pp. 5-6).

Page 9 of 32
 4. Human Resource Information system of the UEL

Not just private businesses strive for the eHR systems. Public sector, like the
University of East London, is implementing and using human resource information
systems too. The University of East London is using a Client Server Database, but is
planning to implement a web – based version in April 2009 (see Appendix F).
At the moment, HR Services of the UEL are using HR system called Trent HR (M2
PRESSWIRE, 2001). Midland Software is a provider of the system. Trent HR is best for
medium – large companies with more than 250 employees (Flood, 2006). This system is
not very flexible, but still it allowed the University of East London to proceed from manual
system to electronic HR. Also the UEL is using one of the system advantages - HR's
manager self-service.
The UEL HR STRATEGY 2008 – 2010 paper just proves that the University is
taking a step into the eHR future. It’s planned to implement an e – recruitment system and
“HR database’s staff ‘self service’ and ‘People Manager’ web-based modules” (HR
Strategy 2008 – 10, 2008, p. 31).On the UEL HR Services Welcome webpage is stated
that they are heading to self – served web based version of the HRIS.
An example of the University HR system and development plans just proves that
the HRIS solution improves and reduces “administrative processes ... allowing the HR
department to focus on wider issues such as recruitment, equal opportunities, staff
development and training” (M2 PRESSWIRE, 2001). So the future trend is a web-based
HR portal.

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 5. Conclusion - determine the need for a web-based database system

This literature review and example of the UEL HR system attempted to identify and
investigate the Human Resource Information System and determine the need for a web-
based database system for the small – medium business.
Most of the “research in HRIS to date is oriented to the large organization” (Ball,
2001, p. 678) and most of the HR software is for the large companies. There is nearly no
research done for the small – medium business use of the eHR. “The relationship between
organizational size and HRIS usage was first identified by Hall and Torrington (1986).
Despite a focus on the larger organization Thaler-Carter (1998) observes that there may
be two fundamental differences between the smaller organization purchasing a HRIS, and
the larger firm: cost and risk” (Ball, 2001, p. 680). Also HR function in the small – medium
business is still administrational: just filling files, not decision making or supporting role.
Ball (2001, p. 691) in the research conclusion reveals, that “only half of the firms who
employee less than 500 employees use HRIS, and those who do only use core HR
modules, rather than additional training and recruitment modules”. So not much freedom
for the employee!

Page 11 of 32
 6. Tools for the web-based database development

I intend to create a web-based database for the small – medium business.

Choosing the most appropriate tools for the development of the web-based database, I
should consider the software availability and price.
First, I had to decide which scripting language I will use to create a web-based
database. Table 2 (see Appendix 2) - two languages can be considered talking about
server-side scripting: ASP and PHP (Yank, 2001):

Page 12 of 32
 7. Conclusion - tools for the web-based database development

For a small business and a developer the choice of PHP, MySQL and APACHE is
tempting considering price and availability. The open source community feedback and
comments, documentation, manuals or bugs fixing is always available online. As Cohen
(2003, p. 169) states that “PHP ... is an open-source technology. The needed software is
available for free, so any site – regardless of size, scale, or income – can use it. All you
have to do is install the free PHP software on your server (it works on nearly every
operating system). If you combine PHP scripts with a free, open-source MySQL database
and free, open-source Apache server software, you can create a very affordable
infrastructure for a very sophisticated site.” That’s what I intend to do!

Page 13 of 32
 8. References

1. Davis, S. and Meyer, C. (1999) Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected
Economy. New York: Warner Books.
2. Heathfield, S. ‘What is the Definition of Human Resources?’ Available from:
http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/what_hr.htm (Accessed 16 October
2008)
3. Beardwell, S. and Claydon, T. (eds) (2007) Human resource management: a
contemporary approach. 5th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
4. Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2003) Human Resource Management: Theory and
Practice. 3rd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
5. Boroughs, A. et al (2008) HR transformation technology: delivering systems
to support the new HR model. Hampshire: Gower Publishing, Ltd.
6. Hopkins, B. and Markham, J. (2003) e-HR: using Intranets to improve the
effectiveness of your people. Hampshire: Gower Publishing, Ltd.
7. Walker, A.J. and Perrin, T. (2001) Web-based Human Resources: The
Technologies and Trends that are Transforming HR. USA: McGraw-Hill Professional
8. Gueutal, H.G. and Stone, D.L. (eds) (2005) The Brave New World of EHR:
Human Resources Management in the Digital Age. 1st ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
9. Ngai, E.W.T. et al (2008). Importance of the internet to human resource
practitioners in Hong Kong. Personnel Review, 37 (1), pp. 66-84. Emerald [Online].
Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com (Accessed: 10 November 2008).
10. Ngai, E.W.T. and Wat, F.K.T. (2006). Human resource information systems:
a review and empirical analysis. Personnel Review, 35 (3), pp. 297-314. Emerald [Online].
Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com (Accessed: 10 November 2008).
11. Kanthawongs, P. (2004). Does HRIS matter for HRM today? Available at
http://www.bu.ac.th/knowledgecenter/epaper/jan_june2004/penjira.pdf (Accessed: 10
November 2008).
12. Bogardus, A.M. (2007) PHR/SPHR: Professional in Human Resources
Certification Study Guide. Canada: John Wiley and Sons.
13. Reilly, P. and Williams, T. (2006) Strategic HR: Building the Capability to
Deliver. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Ltd.
14. Rutledge, T. (2005) Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty. Toronto:
Mattanie Press.

Page 14 of 32
 15. BlessingWhite (April 2008). 2008 Employee Engagement Report.
BlessingWhite [Online] Available at http://www.blessingwhite.com/eee (Accessed: 10
November 2008).
16. Workforce Management (2006). Analyzing the Technology and Benefits of
an Employee Self-Service System. Workforce Management, 85 (19), pS5-S5, 1p. Emerald
[Online]. Available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com (Accessed: 10 November 2008).
17. Office for National Statistics (August 2008). Internet Access 2008
Households and Individuals. Office for National Statistics [Online] Available at
http://www.statistics.gov.uk (Accessed: 10 November 2008).
18. Jones, J. (1998) Virtual HR: Human resource management in the information
age. California: Thomson Crisp Learning.
19. M2 PRESSWIRE (2001). The University of East London expands strategic
role of HR with Midland Software; Managing information effectively to raise profile of HR
department. AccessMyLibrary [Online]. Available at www.accessmylibrary.com (Accessed:
1st December 2008).
20. Flood, S. (2006). All systems go. Human Resources, London: Jan 2006, pp.
32, 3 p. ProQuest [Online]. Available at http://proquest.umi.com (Accessed: 10 November
2008).
21. HR STRATEGY 2008-10 - CMT agreed version 2.7.08. University of East
London [Online]. Available at http://www.uel.ac.uk/hrservices (Accessed: 15 October
2008).
22. Ball, K. S. (2001). The use of human resource information systems: a survey.
Personnel Review, 30 (6), pp. 677-683. Emerald [Online]. Available at:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com (Accessed: 10 November 2008).
23. Yank, K. (2001). Which Server-Side Language Is Right For You? [Online].
Available at: http://www.sitepoint.com/articlelist/48 (Accessed: 15 November 2008).
24. Cohen, J. (2003). The Unusually Useful Web Book. Indianapolis: New
Riders.

Page 15 of 32
 9. Glossary

APACHE - The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to simply as Apache, is a web
server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web.
ASP - Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's first server-side script engine for
dynamically-generated web pages.
B2E - Business-to-employee (B2E) electronic commerce uses an intra business network
which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees
ERP - Enterprise resource planning (ERP), an integrated suite of software applications
typically handling the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, inventory, shipping, and
invoicing in larger businesses.
HR - Human resources is a term with which many organizations describe the combination
of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance, Employee Relations
and resource planning.
HRIS - The Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is a software or online solution
for the data entry, data tracking, and data information needs of the Human Resources,
payroll, management, and accounting functions within a business.
HRM - Human Resource Management ("HRM") is a way of management that links people-
related activities to the strategy of a business or organisation.
HR portal - a single site (a simple-static or a complex) that supports all kind of HR
information.
Knowledge Bases (KB) capture, store, maintain and share knowledge.
Mainframe - are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications,
typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, ERP, and
financial transaction processing.
MySQL - is a relational database management system which has more than 11 million
installations. The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of
databases.
PC - A personal computer (PC) is any computer whose original sales price, size, and
capabilities make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by
an end user, with no intervening computer operator.
PHP - is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages.
Strategic Applications (SA) - “examples of strategic applications include online
application systems that are part of virtually all company websites.

Page 16 of 32
Page 17 of 32
 10. Appendix 1 – Table 1

Supports Enterprise
Vendor Resource Planning HRIS Key Capabilities
(ERP)
1. Employee and manager self-service applications
PeopleSoft Yes through a role base portal
2. Workforce management
1. Training administration
2. Self-service HR
Oracle Yes
3. Time Management
4. Payroll
1. Employee life-cycle management
2. Employee relationship management
SAP Yes
3. Work-force analytic
4. Employee transaction management
Table 1 HRIS vendors and HRIS software information (Kanthawongs, 2004, Table 2)

Page 18 of 32
 11. Appendix 2 – Table 2
ASP.Net - Microsoft
Advantages  Easy to learn and build sites.
 Built into Windows 2000 Server.
 Professional support for the
beginners.
 Popular language.
 Can build from small to big sites.
Drawbacks  It cost a lot!
 Not cross platform - will run just
on IIS (Internet Information Server)
from Microsoft.
 Requires Microsoft .NET
Framework.
 Bugs are fixed by Microsoft at
their time.
 Expensive scripts.
Database MS-SQL Server
Developer You will enjoy using
ASP.Net if you've
developed with VBScript,
Visual Basic, or COM
objects in Windows before.
Friendly to the first-time
user. ASP.Net support and
security issues are more
attractive if the company
can afford high price.
Table 2 ASP.Net vs. PHP
PHP = The PHP Group
 Everything is built right into the
language.
 Open Source.
 Cross-platform.
 Popular language.
 Well supported in the active
users community
 Can run on any environment.
 Server-side scripting
 Fast
 Edited and coded in popular
programs (Macromedia
Dreamweaver, FrontPage or
Notepad).
 Not as friendly to the non-
programmers as ASP.Net.
 Error handling is not as
sophisticated as ASP.
 Any fixes and components are
unsupported
 No backup from the major
software house.
 Development and new releases
take time.
 Relies on open source
programmers to create functions.
Open source MySQL
Considering tight budget or first
time web developers should
choose PHP. It is easy to learn
how to program simple web-based
database in PHP. Simple website -
cheaper, faster and better
supported.
Page 19 of 32
12. Appendix 3 – Figure 1

Figure 1 New HR technologies (Walker and Perrin, 2001, p. xvi)

Page 20 of 32
 13. Appendix 4 – Figure 2

Figure 2 Households with access to the Internet, GB (Office for National Statistics,
August 2008)

Page 21 of 32
 14. Appendix A – Project Proposal Form

Final Year Undergraduate Computing Project Proposal Form

Programme: BSc Business Information Systems Year: 2008

Semester: A

Name: Inga Narmontaite Number: 0724673

Title: A web-based Human Resource Information System for the small – medium business

Aims: To investigate the Human Recourse Information Systems and to develop a web-
based database using the Open Source software.

Objectives:
Research part:
1. To identify and investigate the Human Resource Information System and determine the
need for a web-based database system.
2. Research the existing UEL Human Resource Information system.
3. To identify the most appropriate tools for the development of the web-based database.
Practical part:
4. To design and implement a database system for a human resource management.
5. To design and implement a web based front end for the database system in 4.
6. To evaluate the tools, techniques and methods used to design and implement 4 and 5.
7. To produce a report clearly stating what has been achieved during this project.

Facilities required:
MySQL
PHP
Apache server
Supervisor requested:

Page 22 of 32
15. Appendix B – Project Plan – Literature review

Research part (2008/09 SEM A)

1. To identify/investigate the HRIS

a) Contact an expert in HR field - Graham Symon (Senior Lecturer in Human

Resource Management. Location: B.S. 4.17, Docklands Campus. Telephone:
0208 223 3019 Email: g.symon@uel.ac.uk).

b) Research recommended literature

c) Write report.

d) Submit to TurnItIn.

2. Research the existing UEL HRIS

a) Contact UEL HR department

b) Familiarize with system.

c) Read user manual.

d) Write up analysis.

3. Conclusion - determine the need for a web-based database system

a) Overview 1 & 2.

b) Write report.

c) Submit to TurnItIn.

4. To identify tools for the web-based database development

a) Contact an expert.

b) Research recommended literature.

c) Write report.

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 d) Submit to TurnItIn

5. Household

a) Check references.

b) Submit to TurnItIn final version.

c) Print and write on to CD.

d) Submit the paper version.

Page 24 of 32
 16. Appendix C – Project Plan – Practical Part

Practical Part (2009/10 SEM A)

1. Preparation

a) Download and familiarize with: MySQL, PHP & phpMyAdmin, APACHE WEB
SERVER, Linux OS.
b) Learn and practice PHP.
2. Define project strategy

a) Decide on how the web sites will look

b) Decide on the structure, the content and text of the web page.

c) Write a mission statement – stating goals.

d) Action plan – what features will a web-based database include.

e) Storyboard use case scenario design.

3. Design & Implementation

a) ER Diagram, relationships between DB entities.
b) MySQL: create & populate tables
c) Write queries to generate the required data
d) Write the code for the PHP, based on the DB tables and queries.
e) Interface design - developing user-friendly DB interfaces.
f) Testing.
g) Changing design, the code, the queries or the database model.
h) Re-testing.
i) Implementing.

4. Evaluate the tools, techniques and methods

a) Overview 1 -3.

Page 25 of 32
 b) Produce a report

6. Household

a) Contact & communicate with supervisor

b) Constant documentation

c) Check references.

d) Submit to TurnItIn

e) Print and write on to CD.

f) Submit the paper version.

Page 26 of 32
17. Appendix D – Gantt chart of Literature review
18. Appendix E – Gantt chart of Practical Part
 19. Appendix F – E-mail from HR expert

From: Graham Symon (g.symon@uel.ac.uk )

Sent: Thu 13/11/2008 03:56
To: Inga NARMONTAITE (u0724673@uel.ac.uk)
Subject: final project_expert in HR field

Dear Inga
 
Thank you for your interest in human resource management. HRM is essentially the
management of the employment relationship, encompassing such activities as:

 recruitment and selection

 labour market analysis
 job design
 regulatory compliance (e.g. equality, health and safety, employment rights etc.)
 industrial relations (e.g. with trade unions)
 rewards and benefits (e.g. salaries, pensions)
 training and development
 performance management (appraisal, discipline)

To answer some of the questions that you pose, you should consult a basic HRM text
book: there are many in the business section of the library. Books by the following authors
may be useful (you will find them in the catalogue under author search):

 Torrington & Hall

 Bratton & Gold
 Foot & Hook
 Beardwell & Holden

In terms of the more specialist details you seek on Information Systems, it is true that IS
are becoming more widespread and sophisticated in their application in HRM. Indeed, out-
sourcing of HRM is becoming very common and IS are a major part of this, e.g. workers
and managers will interface with the outsourced function through IS media. However, this
is not my area and I regret that I know very little about these phenomena. I suggest you do
a trawl of the HRM journals for the latest research. You will find the 'Personnel Review',
the 'Human Resource Management Journal' and 'New Technology, Work and
Employment' potentially helpful but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
 
Sorry I could not be more helpful; I wish you luck with your research which sounds most
interesting.
 
Best wishes
Graham
 
Dr Graham Symon
Business School
20. Appendix G – E-mail from UEL HR Systems Manager

From: Rosalynd Milroy (r.milroy@uel.ac.uk)

Sent: Fri 05/12/2008 15:27
To: Inga NARMONTAITE (u0724673@uel.ac.uk)
Subject: RE: help with final project

Hi Inga,
 
Please find some of our HR System training notes attached.
 
There’s a raft more for Payroll etc. but this should give you some of the general
principles.
 
At the moment we are on a Client Server Database, but are transferring to a web
based version of the product in April.
 
Best wishes

Roz

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